Old Moon Fades Into The New
by ohemgeeitscoley
Summary: A collection of unrelated drabbles from Tumblr.
1. Five Seconds

"Dance with me?"

"I don't think that's a great idea."

Emery sighed, focusing on stopping herself from rolling her eyes. "What's the point of coming to a dance, if you don't actually dance?"

"It'll draw too much attention. We aren't here because people want to watch us dance with humans."

"I don't care what everyone wants, Roman."

"Emery—"

Emery shook her head, holding out her hand. "I wasn't actually asking." She reached down, grabbing on to Roman's hand. "Dance with me." She tugged her hand gently, smiling as he stood up.

"You're putting yourself in danger."

"I'm already in danger." Emery smiled up at him as his hands landed on either side of her hips as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Because of me."

"I don't want to keep hiding us."

"Emery," Roman paused, closing his eyes. "We can't."

"Why not?"

"It's too dangerous. You are being targeted from both sides just by being associated with me, for standing up for Atrian rights. Things will only get worse if they know."

"You're doing that thing again where you try to make decisions for me."

"I'm just trying to keep you safe."

"But I'm not. Not being with you isn't going to change that."

"No, but being with me will make it worse."

"You don't know that."

"And you don't know that it won't."

"Maybe it will. So what?"

"Your life is worth more than some relationship. It's worth more than just being some byline in the history of human and Atrian relationships."

"My life is worth what I decide it is. And I want my life to include you. We don't know what any of this will mean in twenty years. For all we know, we will crash and burn and it won't even matter."

"That's convincing."

Emery stopped moving, holding Roman's gaze. "Are you ashamed of me?"

Roman looked away, trying not to pay attention to all of the eyes on them. "You know the answer to that. But it doesn't change any—"

Emery cut off his sentence with her lips, pulling her arms tighter around his neck.

"What are you doing," Roman asked, as he pulled away.

"I don't care what they think. I don't care what they say. I don't care that you think you are the reason for all of the problems in my life. I'm not going to be the one hiding from this. I'm not ashamed of you. You have about five seconds to freak out and pretend I'm completely crazy, if you want anyone to believe there's nothing more going on here. Otherwise I'm going to kiss you again."

"This isn't going to be easy."

"Human girl falls in love with alien boy. Trust me. I'm not expecting easy."

"Nothing is going to change. I can't even take you out on dates."

"We'll get creative."

"What lunch under the bleachers?"

"Math class in the janitor's closet."

Laughing, Roman shook his head. "They won't understand."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe we'll help them understand. Maybe they'll want to stage dates for us. Show the world that anything is possible. That humans and Atrians don't have to be separated."

"Your five seconds are up. What's your choice?"

Pulling back from Emery slightly, Roman shook his head. "You say it like there was ever a real choice."


	2. Distractions

**A/N: Written for macyaudenstarr's prompt: Roman/Emery + Camping AU**

Huffing out a breathe, Emery smiled as Roman came to a stop being her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She leaned her head back, resting it against his shoulder as she took in the view in front of them.

She thought he was kidding when he showed up at her house that morning with a borrowed jeep rambling on about some spot a couple hours away that he wanted to check out this weekend. When she had asked him to spend the weekend with her while her parents went to visit family in Mississippi she had expected something more along the lines of staying in bed or watching movies, not hiking for five hours. Besides, who in the hell went camping in Louisiana in August? The air was sticky and heavy, she regretted her last minute decision to throw on a sweater about twenty minutes into the hike.

But standing on the edge of the slightly muddy lake that seemed to be reflecting all of the colors of a rainbow as the sun continued to set she felt at peace.

"It really is beautiful out here," Emery stayed, turning around. "But it might be just slightly better with s'mores."

Roman's face lit up as he started to laugh. "I think that can be arranged. After we set up this tent. I was hoping we would make it up here an hour ago."

"What's with the look? It's not my fault you got lost."

"I didn't get lost, you distracted me."

"I did no such thing."

Tilting his head, Roman's lips curled up. "Really?"

"Well maybe just a little bit," Emery conceded, smiling as she tried to pull him down to her.

Roman shook his head, kissing her forehead before moving away from her. "Tent. Then distractions."

"I'll have nothing to distract you from once we put the tent up."

"There's the s'more."

Emery snorted as she began pulling the tent stakes out of the bag. "You're cute, but not that cute."


	3. Crashing Down Was My Biggest Mistake

"The Sector that houses the Atrians has been under attack from extremist group the Red Hawks for just over 12 hours. Military personnel are moving in trying to get the situation under control. Any Atrians that managed to escape from the Sector from the power outage are being asked by officials to stay out of the Sector and to find somewhere safe until this situation is under control."

Pressing the mute button, Emery tossed the control across the couch while she pulled her legs up. She had watched the same footage for the last six hours. The news crews were banned from filming any new footage after hour four of the fighting and had been looping the same footage over and over trying to keep the attention of the viewers. The details were getting unclear, generally breaking down into the repeated phrase of stay inside, stay safe.

Glancing down at her phone, Emery glared at the little image that showed no service. Her mom was probably on the edge of a nervous breakdown watching this all happen at her sister's house. Emery hated not being able to check in on her dad. She hated not knowing how Roman was handling what happened, if Roman was even okay. If any of them were really.

The sun was still shining bright outside, false in its inviting offer of a safe, warm summer night. It was hard to imagine that a war was breaking out less than twenty minutes from her even everything seemed so bright. Standing up from the couch, Emery stretched her arms above her head, trying to shake out the bad feelings that seemed to have sunk into her bones.

She glanced out the window again, wishing she could go out and run. Run from the fighting, from the fear, from the guilt. Her attention was drug back to the television as it started flashing red, breaking news flashing across the top. She reached down to the grab the controller when she saw their faces replace the red. She didn't need to hear what they had to say, she knew exactly where they stood. Castor and Grayson were the reason for this to begin with.

It was kind of ironic really, the beginning of the Human/Atrian war being orchestrated by a human and an Atrian. She barely blinked while she watched the picture change to pictures of her and Roman, Lukas and Sophia, and Drake and Taylor. The three pioneer Human/Atrian relationships. The ones that Castor came out against, saying that he would work toward ending the integration if the Atrian seven kept behaving in such a way. That their job was to prove to the humans that they could live in peace so that the Sector would one day be a part of the past.

They all tried to stay apart after Roman's conversation with Castor, but Drake barely lasted three weeks before he and Taylor were caught in one of the locker rooms together. Roman laughed, pulling Emery into his side before giving some long speech about how if his uncle was the one with the problem with real integration, he could just get used to it. Lukas agreed pointing out that they weren't even being talked about on campus. They were changing things.

Emery wasn't sure how so much could happen in forty-eight hours. How her world could go from moving forward at a decently set pace to completely frozen. She sat back down on the edge of the couch, turning the television off completely. She watched as the sun set and left her vision, and as the moon took its place in silence. She let her hopes get up at the sound of the first knock on the front door filled her ears.

But the look on Lukas's face shattered that hope. He didn't say anything as he walked in, making his way past her into the kitchen. Emery closed her eyes, reminding herself to breathe in and out. When she finally made her way into the kitchen, Lukas was leaning against the counter with his arms wrapped around his chest.

"Some of the Red Hawks went after Taylor. She's supposed to be on her way to get Julia. They should be here soon."

"Why are they going after Taylor? She's a human. Aren't they the pro-human group after all?"

"I don't know Em. Maybe they want to make a statement out of us. Show the world that being with an Atrian makes you a subhuman. All I know is that we aren't safe."

Emery nodded as she took in the information. "Have you heard anything?"

Lukas looked away, confirming what Emery already knew. "They'll be fine. We need to focus on being fine. Go pack a bag. We need to get out of here."

"Where are we going to go? The city is shut down, Lukas."

"Roman and Drake were worried something like this might happen. We came up with a plan a couple months ago, a back way out of town. A few locations that we would try to meet up at."

Emery looked up at Lukas. "A plan? Why didn't I know about this plan?"

"It was just the three of us. We didn't want you guys worrying."

"Us guys? You mean us girls."

"Maybe it was a bad move."

Tilting her head, Emery gave him her best glare before sighing. "They could be safe though?"

"There's only one way to find out."

"Right. Running. I'll be back." Turning around, Emery made it halfway up the staircase before turning around and going back to the kitchen.

"I'll go with you for now. But if they aren't there when we get there, I'm going to the Sector and I am fighting." Emery held her hand up stopping Lukas before he could reply. "I'm not asking you Lukas. I'm telling you."


End file.
